Royal Mail and the Post Office

From my political perspective, I want to do everything that I possibly can to reduce competition, because it is unfair competition, and I certainly have no truck with further privatisation. Liberalisation was a nice term, and we used to bandy it around as though it were the answer to everything. In essence, in this respect, it has been an unmitigated disaster. I shall make five simple points, forming the kernel of the debate, to which the Minister may wish to respond, although he may not wish to respond to all of them now. First, we must revisit the Postal Services Act 2000. That Act, which we were all proud of, is not working. I cannot put my finger on exactly what part of the Act is wrong, but we have created an unfair situation, whereby competition is one-sided. Those who compete with the Post Office and Royal Mail are doing okay, but the Post Office and Royal Mail are doing badly. Those of us who believe that there is a need for a state communications service think that that must be looked into. I do not see why something that is so beloved should be completely undermined. The current situation should not be used as an excuse for further privatisation. The service should be owned by the state, given that much of the communications service is already in private hands. Secondly, the universal service obligation, which I have already mentioned, is not working because it is entirely vested in the Post Office and Royal Mail, which cannot be fair, given that other national carriers should also be contributing. Thirdly, as the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mr. Reid), whom I congratulate on securing this important debate—I am sorry that I did not say that at the beginning—and other hon. Members have said, competition has arisen in the form of losing PayPoint, possibly losing the Post Office card account and losing the passport business, which is not often mentioned. Whatever one's views on the identity card, it was a potential money-spinner, yet the Post Office effectively gave up the ghost, because the criteria were rigged to make it so difficult for it to win the business. That is a tragedy, because it could have worked.